Advancement Privacy Statement

Privacy & data protection statement for alumnae/i and supporters

This Privacy Policy outlines the College’s collection, use, and disclosure of information provided to the College by our graduate and undergraduate alumnae/i, parents of students (former and current), and philanthropic supporters of the College (“you” and “your”). By developing a better understanAding of our supporters, we are better able to communicate with you, inform you of current events on our campus, provide services to you and identify ways in which you can be a part of the college community.

We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. The College’s general data privacy policy can be found on the Privacy Policy webpage. The following statement sets out more specifically how the college uses your personal data for fundraising and alumni relations purposes.

Personal Data That We Collect and Hold

We may hold information relating to you from a number of sources. A significant proportion of the information we have for alumnae/i is that which is provided to us by electronic online submission or communicated to us via postal mail, electronic mail or telephone. If you are a current or former student having taken courses at Goucher, some of your personal data is transferred from your student academic record to the College’s alumnae/i database.

The information that we collect includes the following:

  • Details of your education (e.g. the courses you have completed, dates of study, degree conferred, etc.)
  • Unique personal identifiers and biographical information (e.g. student number, date of birth)
  • Your contact details (and we update these whenever you let us know that they have changed)
  • Details of your interactions with the College, including:
    • Your participation and attendance at College events
    • Your history of donations made to the College for tax reporting purposes
  • Names and information about your partner/spouse to include them in our event and other communications
  • Personal preferences provided by you for a specific purpose (e.g. mobility/disability restrictions and dietary preferences)
  • Your communication preferences, to help us provide tailored and relevant communications
  • Publicly available information relating to your ability/willingness to make financial donations
  • Your participation and activities with non-profit organizations
  • Professional information captured from corporate and professional networking websites

How We Use Your Data

Your data is used by us for a number of purposes, including for the support of alumni engagement, and parent and donor relations. These include:

  • Sending you publications (e.g. college magazines, departmental newsletters)
  • Conducting surveys
  • Providing services, including access to College facilities and alumnae/i email accounts
  • Sending you tailored proposals, appeals and requests for donations
  • Sending you details of volunteering opportunities
  • Inviting you to alumni and other College events
  • Internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints
  • Administrative purposes (e.g. IRS reporting, stewardship, honor roll publications, industry reporting, etc.)
  • The promotion of other opportunities and services available to you (e.g. offers and opportunities available through the College’s network of alumni groups)
  • Research and analysis in order to improve our understanding and engagement of our alumni and philanthropic supporters

Communications to you may be sent by mail, telephone or electronic means (principally by email), depending on the contact details we hold, the consent that you have provided, and the preferences you express about the types of communications you wish to receive.

If you have concerns about any of these purposes, or how we communicate with you, please contact us using the details listed below.

We may use automated or manual analyses to link data together to provide you with an improved online experience, to send you communications that are relevant and timely, to identify volunteering opportunities or opportunities for providing support that may be of interest to you, and to avoid sending items that have no interest to you. All of this enables us to decrease unnecessary marketing costs and increase support for the College’s strategic objectives. We always seek to ensure that any opportunities we present are aligned with your interests, based on the research we conduct.

Online Payments

We may collect credit card information from you for purpose of processing a donation that you make to the college or paying for an event that you wish to attend. When you send us credit card information over the Internet, we use industry standard SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.

Cookies

The College’s use of cookies and other data from information technology can be found in the College’s Cookie Statement.

Third Parties

We may disclose your information to third parties as follows:

Consent. We may use and disclose your information to reputable third parties if we have your consent to do so.

Service Providers. We may use reputable third parties to support our operations. In such cases, we may share your information with such third parties who are obligated to safeguard it from unauthorized disclosure.

College Affiliated Programs. We may share your information with reputable third parties that are affiliated with the College for the purpose of contacting you about goods, services, or experiences that may be of interest to you.

Required by Law. We may share your information with third parties to the extent we are required to do so by law, court order, or subpoena.

De-Identified and Aggregate Information. We may collect, use and disclose information about our alumnae/i and donors in de-identified or aggregate form without limitation.

How We Protect Your Data

We ensure we have appropriate data sharing agreements in place before sharing your personal data with third parties.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties under any circumstances.

We facilitate communication between individual alumnae/i but we do not release personal contact details without prior permission.

Retention and Destruction of Your Information

Your information will be retained by the College in accordance with the applicable retention periods in the Record Management Policy adopted by the College.

When you exercise your right to erase your data, as described below, we will continue to maintain a core set of personal data (including name, subject(s), matriculation and graduation details, unique College identification number and date of birth) to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in the future, and to maintain your academic record for archive purposes.

Your Rights

You have the right to request access to, a copy of, rectification, restriction in the use of, or erasure of your information. These rights differ depending upon the location within the world where your information was created or shared. The erasure of your information is also subject to the college’s Record Management Policy.

Our privacy officer is responsible for monitoring compliance with relevant legislation in relation to the protection of your personal information. You may contact us at privacy@goucher.edu if you have any concerns or questions about the above information or you wish to ask us not to process your personal data for particular purposes. Where you have specific requests relating to how we manage your data, we will try to resolve these, but please note that there may be circumstances where we cannot comply with specific requests. You may also manage your data preferences here.

If you are a resident of the European Union, we will always obtain your affirmative consent to collect and use Sensitive Information, as defined and required by the General Data Protection Regulation, 2016/679.

If your information was created within or transferred from the European Union, you may also be able to file a complaint with the appropriate supervisory authority in the European Union.

Further Information

The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary for the pursuit of our legitimate interests, which are described in detail above. We always handle your personal data securely and minimize its use, and we have determined that there is no overriding prejudice to you by using your personal information for these purposes.

Updates to This Policy

We may update or change this policy at any time. Your continued use of this site after any such change indicates your acceptance of such changes.

Revised August 2018